Fighting to shut down meth labs

Police, others say restricting sale of key drug would help

Sep. 30, 2012

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Springfield City Council will soon start discussion on restricting the sale of meth’s main ingredient, pseudoephedrine. The News-Leader investigates common claims guiding the debate. What is “smurfing” and how a prescription law could stop it.

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As soon as the Springfield detective entered the home, an overwhelming chemical odor took his breath away. His eyes and skin began to burn.

He recognized the smell immediately.

Muriatic acid was on a shelf next to the oven. A bottle of acetone sat atop a hot-plate burner on the kitchen counter.

The search found six adults in the home. In a back bedroom, a 3-week-old baby boy lay lethargic.

Officers got everybody out and only returned when they could get gas masks.

The detective was only in the home for 10 minutes. The burning sensation lasted five hours.

Police in southwest Missouri say these scenes are all too common – statistics show that area police see them more often than most police across the country.

In an attempt to stop these homemade meth labs, Branson, Hollister, Joplin and cities across the state have passed laws restricting the sale of meth’s main ingredient, pseudoephedrine.

Springfield might be next.

Language for a local over-the-counter ban is being drafted by the city’s legal department. A City Council committee is expected to soon begin discussing what a Springfield ordinance might look like.

A statewide ban has been introduced in the Missouri legislature several times but hasn’t passed.

Police say the current system of electronically tracking pseudoephedrine has had limited success in combating meth labs. In Springfield, the supervisor of the narcotics unit says the system hasn’t led to a single bust and the number of labs found in the city last year was at an all-time high.

Opponents of the measure say that a prescription requirement would punish the law-abiding and that motivated addicts would simply find another way to get pseudoephedrine or another way to make methamphetamine.

“I really wish something could be done. It’s a terrible drug, but at the same time, I don’t want my rights impinged either,” said Nixa councilwoman Darlene Graham, who voted down a proposed prescription requirement in Nixa last month.

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There are other interested parties.

Those who have helped usher in over-the-counter bans in other Missouri communities say Springfield residents should expect billboards, call campaigns and radio spots. Although the language of the ordinance has not yet even been drafted, advertising has already begun — funded by organizations representing manufacturers and distributors of nonprescription drugs.

“They stand to lose a lot of money,” said Sgt. Jason Grellner of the Missouri Narcotics Officers Association.

Rob Bovett, district attorney for Oregon’s Lincoln County and the primary author of the state’s anti-meth laws, said the pharmaceutical industry has been active in nearly every state or community that has proposed restrictions on pseudoephedrine.

Many who support a prescription requirement — including Springfield Police Chief Paul Williams — point to the success of Oregon’s law. Only Oregon and Mississippi have enacted a statewide prescription requirement and both states report significant reductions in labs.

In 2004, Oregon recorded 424 meth lab incidents, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s El Paso Intelligence Center. Oregon’s law took effect in 2006. In 2011, there were 11 meth lab incidents reported in Oregon, while Missouri saw 2,096 incidents — the most in the country, according to the DEA data.

Bovett noted that pseudoephedrine had required a prescription until the FDA “let the genie out of the bottle” in 1976.

Since the ’90s, Springfield police Sgt. Bryan DiSylvester, supervisor of the department’s narcotics unit, has watched as Springfield meth labs have caused fires, explosions and toxic waste, and have endangered children.

In recent years, Springfield police have seen a rise in meth labs as production means have transformed to smaller, more mobile labs. In 2010, there were 67 labs or lab component dump sites discovered. Last year, there were 108. So far, 55 labs have been found in 2012, according to department data.

On several occasions, DiSylvester and his narcotics officers — he says they have all become amateur chemists — have been tasked with cleaning up volatile labs.

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Officers have stumbled upon meth labs that use red phosphorus road flares as an ingredient. During manufacturing, the flares release phosphorus gas, an odorless gas that’s lethal in even small amounts.

The meth cooks have used large punch balloons — a child’s toy — to capture the deadly gas.

“Now we have to get that balloon and figure out a way to safely vent it,” DiSylvester said.

“We aren’t making this issue up or exaggerating it. It’s a real problem,” he said.

DiSylvester couldn’t say for sure whether a prescription requirement would impact meth, use but “at least they aren’t mixing it here.”

“If it does nothing more than reduce labs, it will be a great success.”

He added meth production is tied to some property crimes and identity theft — some manufacturers might use a stolen driver’s license to buy more pseudoephedrine.

He, too, mentioned the success of Oregon. He believes if there are steps to reduce labs, Springfield should take them.